This has been quite a stumblingblock for the English persons I have been challenged to teach a bit of Scandinavian and/or German over the years. I remember one

This has been quite a stumblingblock for the English persons I have been challenged to teach a bit of Scandinavian and/or German over the years. I remember one particularly challenging Cambridge graduate, otherwise sharp as a tack, who had enormous trouble with the the concept that vowels in general are not diphtongs, and that it doesn't really behove an Englishman to giggle over this quaint continental anomaly.